What Must Be Done
by Hotshot53
Summary: When Sam mysteriously disappears Jules is left to pick up the pieces of her life, but when she discovers he is still alive can she rescue him and put her life back together? Sam/Jules fic, Sequel to Full Circle but will make sense on its own.
1. Chapter 1

I know this is much delayed but I only have so much time after work and school, and this had to compete with several other projects. Anyway I would like to thank anyone who reads my story especially those who review it. Very especially those I came to depend on for reviews of my last story and who I hope can be depended on for this one as well, mostly because I have no reason to devote the time for this otherwise.

Warning: This one will probably involve more action then my last one because in my experience trained military and SWAT officers can get very, very scary when people they love are threatened.

Disclaimer- I do not own flashpoint, nor any of the characters and all that stuff.

Several men in black sprinted down an alley, rushing from shadow to shadow and avoiding the illuminating moonlight and streetlights. A few fell behind, and were left behind; others split up in the hope they would go unnoticed, traitors: every one. Their fate was sealed if they couldn't keep up, and the merchandise they were carrying was only slightly less expendable then they were. Eventually he was on his own, but suddenly the very doom he were sprinting from appeared abruptly from around a corner, a flash of black and grey visible in the moments before he was forced to the ground. A bright light blocked out his vision, and as it receded he felt himself being turned over onto his back and the sensation of plastic over his wrists. Out of his current haze the thought "I have a concussion" warred against "Crap." The latter seemed to win eventually. As he finally lost consciousness he was turned back over, and saw what had to be a hallucination. Had to be. There was no way he had been taken down by a _girl!_

"Boss, I have Adrian DeSantos in custody." Jules spoke into her radio with an appropriately smug attitude. Or perhaps slightly more than appropriate. There was however a pause, a moment of silence everyone still expected to be filled. But the unprofessionally supportive voice never came over her radio, there was no barely hidden admiration or poorly disguised flirting. Her smug attitude evaporated, replaced by a number of competing emotions. Mostly sorrow, regret and guilt. She brushed of the feelings of that moment, the memories that wouldn't go away, and the feelings she wished she regretted having. Jules realized her mistake then, the information a professional should have given while she was distracted. "The rest appear to have split up, he was alone." She needed to be better than that. She knew she wouldn't though, not until thoughts of him went away.

Eventually Ed filled the silence "Copy. Primary subject in custody. Coordinate with the uniforms, get a net up to catch the rest of them."

All night she tried to bury him under chasing subjects, she hounded them relentlessly until they inevitably tired and slowed. At which point she tackled them. Not usually her department but not even her team could keep up. The freedom the dealers were running for was not nearly as motivating as what she was running from. For a few moments the intensity earned her some peace, time when the guilt of what had happened no longer chewed at her every thought and emotion. But those moments always ended, and brought him back with them.

Eventually the night ended, with none of the dealer's goons escaping. Greg had given his usual praise, this time not bothering to ask what was wrong. No one asked what was wrong. They all knew. So they pretended she had simply excelled at her job, celebrated and wrote positive things about her in reports. None of it mattered. Suddenly the job she had fought so hard and so long for took a backseat to the man she had loved. Loved- past tense, ended, gone, finished. Not really. Never. She would never stop loving him. Even if he never returned to her she would never stop loving him. As she returned home she felt the memory flooding her again, and this time put up no resistance.

"_Sam. Sam. Come on Sam we need to do this." She continued protesting but it became more difficult as Sam moved his mouth over hers, and eventually she simply gave in. She knew they needed to be cleaning the weapons, each pair of partners had to rotate the job and it was their turn. And they would do it. Eventually. For now she savored the contact, one of their far-to-few moments together. She pulled him in closer and joined him in the kiss, opening up her passion and love as he did the same. For a brief moment she was blindingly happy, but suddenly a new sound draws her attention: the sound of the armory door opening. As they abruptly broke apart a man had come in._

"_Sam. I need to talk to you about something."The man had a clipped tone of voice, and an intensely unremarkable appearance. _

"_Sure Gary. Let's talk." Sam replied bitterly._

"_In private."_

"_I don't really think that's necessary Gary. Whatever you need to say to me you can say in front of her too." Sam responded, but the look on the other man's face was troubling._

"_There's no time to be screwing around Sam. We need to talk, Alone, Right Now." As he finished the look on his face made it clear that this was his last offer._

"_Its ok Sam I got this. Go talk about whatever it is you need." _

"_There see she's fine on her own. She doesn't need you." Gary agreed slightly too quickly. _

"_Ok Jules. I'll see you later." Sam said reluctantly, and held her gaze for a moment before turning and glaring at Gary as they left together._

That memory played over and over again in her head. She analyzed it from every angle one more time, tried to pick apart every facial expression and every idiom the two had exchanged. She did so because she had never seen or heard from Sam since then. Almost four months ago he had disappeared without a trace. The official police investigation turned up no leads, and Sam's father had him declared legally dead two months later. Just like that her happy dream had come crashing down. Just like that the man she had loved was gone. That night she cried in her bed, but just like every other night no one held her close to comfort her, and Sam didn't show up to whisper encouragement to her. Sam didn't appear to provide comforting warmth and she was still all alone. And it was all her fault. Sam had clearly not wanted to be alone with this guy, and she had practically forced him to do it. If she had just paid more attention at the time, realized that maybe this was a problem whatever had happened could be avoided. Instead she had

The next day the charade continued, Jules pretended to be fine and the others pretended to believe it. Fortunately a call provided today's distraction. They were needed for a raid on a house that had connections to Adrian DeSantos, the man they had arrested last night. There were indication that he was higher up in the drug cartel then they had thought, and that this house might have a connection to Pablo Ramirez, the head of the whole cartel. The house had been mostly cleared out, haphazardly ransacked for important materials. The empty house had been cleaned of anything they might have found there. That is until Jules noticed something. "Boss come take a look at this. Looks like a tape recorder, got dropped in the shuffle. Its got a tape inside it."

At a nod from Ed she clicked the play button.

"Tell me sir, did you really think you could steal from me?" The sounds of someone being tortured drifted from the device, a horror story of human suffering. "Huh? Did you? Well my friend you are going to tell everything I want to know. I want to know how my shipments are being intercepted. I want to know who in my organization is talking to the government. And I want to know the blind spots in your net so I can get my operation back on line."

Another male's voice came out of the speakers as they all strained to hear. A chill swept over Jules as the first voice added "What was that? Speak up!"

The voice came again, louder this time, and more defiant. "Corporal: Braddock, Sam. Serial Number …" the rest was cut off by the first man's rage before the tape ended.

Please leave reviews guys!


	2. Chapter 2

I am so sorry about the delay, but college applications have contributed in part to a massive case of writers block, along with some other factors. Also one thing I have discovered is that it is really hard to write your way out of a cliffhanger ending. Really really hard, so I apologize if this chapter is below par, but I couldn't take the guilt of all your reviews asking for an update so I had to put up something. Thank all of you once again for caring because without you all I probably never would have tried to finish this at all. So to those that still care, I present to you the ingeniously titled: Chapter 2

Sam Braddock was not having a good day. Not that he had been having many good days recently. Torture only interrupted by brief rests to recover and the occasional death is not a happy time. Unfortunately a defribulator and surprisingly good doctor ensured that he was getting no escape anytime soon_. I considered escape, and tried and failed that option_. He reminded himself. _So I need another option. But what other options are there? Escape, hope their torture kills me, or tell them what they want. Or hold on long enough that I go completely insane and they can't trust anything I say. That last one is particularly unpleasant, and I've tried and failed to escape back when it was both me and Gary. _ _And I'll never talk. The information they want would put police and military at risk not to mention allowing massive drug shipments into the country. Oh who am I kidding, I passed the point of caring about the drug trade long ago. I passed the point of caring about military and police shortly after. But that information would put Jules at risk. So escape attempt, take 15 it is. As soon as I manage to stand again. _Slowly the world faded to black as he lost consciousness, still focused on protecting Jules.

He woke abruptly, suddenly alert and feeling somewhat better than he had in a long time. He could tell by how much he had recovered that they had let him sleep for a long time, which was unusual. He found that he could stand which was also uncommon these days. He managed to make his way to the steel door of his tiny cage, and put his blood crusted ear to the door to listen. "Sir we lost DeSantos last night. He was taken down by a police raid during a sale. We thought we had managed to clear all incriminating materials out of his house but we must have missed something because after the police searched it they launched a massive investigation, brought in every unit they could think of and it appears they even contacted the military to get them involved. Sir they must know about him. We should get rid of him like the other one and cut our losses."

"No you fool. This man is the key. He is unique; he has complete knowledge of security protocols, both military and police. He alone can tell us what we need to know to slip our product into the country undetected, and to deal with any response once it is here. Mr. DeSantos is expendable and he will hold out for a while, so we have some time to get to him before he talks. Find me another specialist to break our friend Mr. Braddock."

"But sir..."

"Did I ask your opinion? NO I did not. Now do what you are told before I decide you are expendable as well!"

"Yes sir. Right away sir."

Sam silently moved further back into his room as the pair passed by. His mind raced as he considered the consequences of that conversation. Apparently the man who had been in charge of breaking him had been arrested, and they needed a replacement. There was only so much longer he could hold on, and this could be his only chance at escape. Suddenly he felt a new sensation, a half remembered feeling from a vague and blurry dream of a life. DeSantos had been arrested, in a drug deal. That would have meant SRU. That would have meant Jules. Suddenly he felt hope once more, as he set about planning his escape from his steel cage.

Hope you enjoyed it, and the next one shouldn't take quite so long to update, or be so incredibly short. I just finally have the time and inspiration to work on this again and had to give you guys something for your wait. I'm still so sorry. (P.S. I finally agreed with myself to alternate between Jules and Sam between chapters. Also in case you haven't figured it out part of the point of this story is that I intentionally swapped the gender roles of a traditional damsel in distress story. Because I can.)


	3. Chapter 3

So after a long wait my writer's block has finally cleared enough to write the third chapter, hope you enjoy it but:

Disclaimer: this one got a little darker, well actually a lot darker than I had intended it to. You've been warned.

Adrian Desantos knew what happened to traitors. He knew all the horrible things and horrifyingly creative punishments the cartel subjected them too, before mercifully killing them. He had seen men truly broken beyond all recognition. But at the moment he was more afraid of the Female SRU officer standing across from him. He thought one of the others had referred to her as Jules, and had been hinting at something unsaid. Probably something important judging by her empty gaze as she stared at him. He had seen that look before, usually in family members of addicts, or the addicts themselves. That look of someone who had lost everything, and was looking at the person who took it from them. She had lost someone precious to her, and she thought he could help her get them back. She didn't look liked she particularly cared how.

Suddenly one of the men spoke up, evidently trying good cop first. "So Adrian, you seem to be in a bit of trouble today don't you."

"Lets cut to the chase. You want me to tell you something. Something important that you think I can help with. Why don't you tell me what it is and we can talk?"

"Very well. Four months ago SRU officer Sam Braddock disappeared. Today we found a recording of him being interrogated and tortured in your house." He knew the dealer had enough experience to know how bad torturing a cop would be.

He decided it wasn't quite worth it. "Sorry I don't know anything abou…" he never finished the sentence. The girl had abruptly started walking from her position on the wall without saying a word. She walked around behind him and stood there in his blind spot for a while.

"Sarge we seem to be having a problem with the camera. And the audio. And the auto recorder." A voice spoke over a PA system. "Nothing seems to be recording in there." Before that sank in Jules bashed him in the back of the head with her elbow. Then she picked his head up by the hair and hit him onto the steel table he was sitting at.

"Memory any better now?" she asked.

"No, sorry. Still foggy." He replied.

He heard the unmistakable sound of a taser discharging from behind him, and registered an alarmed look from the rest of the SRU in the room. The he saw the cap and leads slam onto the table. Suddenly his vision was filled with a black plastic weapon, electricity arcing from its exposed cap. "Are you sure you don't remember?" she asked maliciously. No, not malice he realized. She spoke with an utter lack of emotion, as if she was dead inside. Fear swelled within him but he was still more afraid of the cartel. He nodded. Suddenly his muscles moved on their own and he felt the most incredible pain he had ever experienced. Finally it stopped and she was leaning over him screaming right into his ear "WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?" Before he could reply he received another jolt "WHAT?"

He hesitated for another moment as she moved to hit him with the taser again. "OK enough. But I want police protection if I talk. The cartel will kill me if I tell you."

"You don't talk, and we'll throw you out onto the street right now and drop all the charges. What do you think the cartel will assume happened in here?" Ed asked.

"all right all right. Four months ago, two men killed the cartel head in the city. A Sniper shot him through the head. But they didn't get out so cleanly. Your guy showed up, evidently trying to stop them. We captured him, but the other two escaped. A few days later one of our warehouses got raided by two guys. Evidently we had tried to expand into human trafficking and picked up this guy's daughter. That's what your guy told us anyway, I know nothing about that. We never saw either of them again, but we realized that he had been both military and police. See you've been hurting the cartel bad recently, and the military has also started intercepting shipments recently. The higher-ups figured that if we broke this guy we could sneak past both sides and get our product through."

"So where is he now?" Jules activated the taser again when he didn't immediately reply but he quickly spat out an address.

"Thank you sir. Jules outside now." Ed had an edge in his voice that he had never had before. When they made it out of the interrogation room he said "Jules what the hell was that? I saw you totally lose control in there.

"I don't care Ed. I don't. I can't do it anymore I can't pretend to be fine. I need to find him Ed. I need to bring him home. If you can't work with me after this fine it was worth it." She fought to keep her voice from breaking as she finished "but I need him back, and I'll do what must be done to bring him home."

"I understand that Jules, and in your place I might be doing the same thing. But I need to know you're in control. What just happened in there can never happen again. Ever. Do you understand me Jules?"

"Yes sir. I understand." Jules replied with ice in her voice. She would maintain control. She would do whatever she needed to for Sam. She would do anything to rescue the man she loved, even if she could no longer look at herself in a mirror afterword. She had spent the last four months shifting back and forth from despair, hope, and feeling nothing at all. She just hoped that her numbness lasted long enough to rescue Sam, because she didn't want to think about the person she was becoming without him.

"I hope you do Jules. I hope you do." After that Ed went back on comms, and Jules did the same. "Mount up people, we've got someone to save."


	4. Chapter 4

I can only apologize deeply to anyone I may have disappointed with the ridiculously long wait, and I hope you can enjoy the fic.

This one is for DJ, who held out hope for me long after I had given up, and broke a writers' block I thought would never end.

Also thank god for Avril Lavigne, cause I had nothing until I started listening to When You're Gone over and over again.

Also…. Yes, yes! I see it now! - I still don't own flashpoint.

Jules sat in the SUV as the team drove towards the location Desantos had given them. The passing roadside barely registered on her eyes. Instead she saw a crackling blue light, and heard a man scream in pain. She saw the blood and sweat mixed together in his hair from where she had hit him, and slammed his head into a steel table. And she saw that blood on her hands. She smelled it most of all. The burning flesh from where she had touched the exposed taser head to his neck. The blood of another human being on her hands. But try as she might she couldn't bring herself to feel anything in that moment. She couldn't feel remorse, or guilt, or anticipation, or love, or sadness or pain. She had lost part of herself along the last four months, and spent them trying to feel again, or trying not to feel anymore. In that interrogation room she had given up her chance of getting it back. She had crossed a line, and in doing so had become a different person. She didn't know what she had lost there; she just knew she didn't care. She knew what she had gained there in exchange. She traded it for Sam Braddock. She traded it for a chance to rescue him, for even a chance to have him back again.

The SUV took a sharp corner that jerked her out of her thoughts, and brought her back to the present. She forcibly kept her focus on the present and the mission where it belonged. She could worry about the consequences later, for now she had to rescue Sam. The team was silent for once, no one filling the radio with idle chatter or even important information. She was grateful for the silence, because she didn't have to pretend. She used the pain and loneliness of the last several times one final time, bringing them up around her like armor to keep her mind where she needed it, and to stay focused on the task. She calmly checked her M4 carbine, making sure the magazine was clear and would feed properly, and she chambered a round. She checked the holographic sight and made sure it was zeroed in properly. Next she drew her sidearm, a Beretta Px4 Storm. She checked the magazine, ensured there was a loaded round, and checked the iron sights one more time. She found no mistakes or problems in either of her weapons, but knew better than to triple check. The only thing worse than a problem with your weapon in a firefight was arriving to a firefight and trying to put your gun back together while being shot at. Unfortunately her thoughts drifted back to Sam. A scream of pain that only he could make sound defiant, the months of torture he must have endured for her sake all flashed through her mind. She was reminded of his… "NO" she thought to herself with an iron will. If they were going to live through this, she couldn't afford to let her mind drift. Mercifully her radio sparked to life, with information on the address they were headed to.

Spike's voice suddenly filled her ear as he spoke. "All right Desantos told us that Sam was being held underground, in an old abandoned factory. Problem is that building doesn't have a basement according to the plans. The way he described it, it sounds like they linked into something underground there, and we have no idea what. Could be we're dealing with a mouse hole system but even if we're not we're heading into very perfect ground for an ambush."

Suddenly Ed's voice cut in on the radio "Team Three is cutting short its patrol to meet with us, and team's two and four have been called in but we don't have time to wait for them. Same thing with uniforms, they are on their way to secure a perimeter but we will arrive first, and we don't have time to wait for anything. They know this location is compromised and they might try to move Sam if they haven't already. We have no time for preparation people, so we are going in blind and unprepared. They could hit us with anything so be ready for it." Ed finished his inspiring speech just as the SUVs pulled up in front of the building. The team piled out of the vehicles and advanced in formation and in silence. The team was prepared for a full scale assault, they had no one to negotiate with yet so they could employ the entire team. They maintained a silent profile as they breached and quickly spread out over the empty factory floor, watching for a potential ambush.

Their diligence did not go to waste, at least spike's didn't as he suddenly yelled "FLASHBANG" a few moments before it went off, releasing a blinding flash of light and a deafening bang. Fortunately those few moments made all the difference in the world as automatic weapons opened fire. Instead of ripping into the team, immobilized and disoriented in a killing ground, the shots all went high above the team that had managed to flatten themselves on the floor. There they were shielded from the worst of the blast, and began firing back along tracers racing toward them. Jules fired back with her M4 as well, despite not seeing the shooter. When she stopped shooting for a moment, a sudden thought distracted her, and for the first time in her life she was glad someone was shooting at her. If someone was defending this place, then there was still something here to defend. She felt her lips pull back into a hunter's smile. Sam was here, alive. And these men were in her way.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I still don't own flashpoint. I'll tell you when I do.

Ok so action story just kind of happened here…. Um go with it please. I don't really plan out much in advance so the violence really just kind of happened.

Jules dove for cover as a military issue grenade sailed through the air towards her. She rolled along the ground and came up behind an overturned steel picnic table, and dove again for a thick load bearing cable to shield her from the blast. After a deafening roar and blinding blast, she saw the wisdom of her choice; the table had been twisted and warped by the grenade even as shrapnel had torn irregular, ragged wounds through its structure. She had no time to pause, to time to think and reflect on how close to dying she had just come, there was only time to react. Only time to bring her carbine back up to her shoulder and look down its scope for the man who had thrown the grenade. Once again she had to make a terrible choice, a choice no one should have to make.

Here stood a human being, a fighter like her and probably separated from her life by little more than chance of birth and circumstance. In any other circumstance she would have had time to reflect on the reality of the situation, think about it beforehand and have time to run through the list of reasons why she had to end his life. Instead Sam's life depended on her speed. She held her breath and squeezed the trigger, and watched for a moment as his life emptied out onto the floor. Then the moment passed and she was yanked back to reality. She didn't stop to consider her crime, didn't take a breath or regret some infinite human fallacy that led to this conflict. She just moved on. She took aim at another man and again squeezed the trigger, watching this one dive for cover just a second too slow as her fire cut him down as well. The firefight lasted another several minutes, minutes that would forever imprint themselves on Jules' mind as a series of over-vivid moments and unintelligible blurs that would together haunt her in her dreams for the rest of her life.

Eventually the shooting stopped, the sharp silence broken only by the ragged uneven breathing of SRU team one. Eventually Ed shouted out "Clear!" The others yelled out a chorus of agreement as they were dragged back to their senses after the most intense firefight of their entire lives. The team's training brought them back to reality, and got them moving forward again in formation. Fortunately it wasn't long before they found what they were looking for; the large hole drilled into the floor of a back room was a dead giveaway. Someone had built a classic mousehole, which allowed clandestine movement and transportation. Usually a favorite tactic in urban warfare against superior forces, repurposed to avoid the police.

Jules didn't wait for the plan, and didn't give the team time to figure out what to do. She barely took the time to check how far the fall was before jumping down the hole. She vaguely heard Greg say something, before everyone else jumped in after her. She felt a hand on her shoulder, trying to force her around. Instead of spinning around and turning the move back on whoever it was, she spoke softly to the team. "Listen." She heard unmistakable tapping on metal, in what she recognized as morse code. Fortunately the tunnel only extended straight in two directions, and the sound didn't echo all over the city.

"Morse code" Spike said.

"Its an S.O.S., repeating along with Sam identifying himself by name, and as a cop." Jules said in reply. "He taught me the basics once." She didn't smile at the pleasant memory of that night together, that they had spent together. She didn't laugh at the memory of the jokes he had made or the story he had told, which had led to morse code lessons. She just readied her weapon and walked toward the sound. Before long, the tapping stopped and they heard the unmistakable sound of a trio of gunshots, each taken at a measured pace from the last. Jules abandoned the attempts at stealth and sprinted toward the sound, barreling around a corner to where the sound had been coming from and suddenly stopped short at what she saw.

She saw a door, opened from the outside but nearly ripped off its hinges.

She saw three men, lying dead on the floor with their blood forming a pool between them.

She saw a man, still in military camo pants, but lacking a shirt. She saw a familiar torso with unfamiliar scars and angry red wounds still slick with sweat and blood that all told a story of pain, and resilience. He was bloody and badly wounded, but he was alive. She saw Sam.


End file.
